Copy stars from DNG to original raw?

[Elliot]

Hi,

I upgraded to CC from CS5.5 about a year ago. Back then, I had a camera that 5.5 didn't recognize, so I converted the raw files to DNG so I can edit in PS/ACR. Now that I have upgraded, I'd like to delete as many of the DNG files as I can -- the ones I didn't edit in ACR. However, I did rate a bunch of the DNG photos.

Is there some trick I can use to transfer the star ratings from the DNG to the original raw images so I can then delete the DNG files? Or do I basically have to reproduce the stars by hand?

Thanks.

 

[Damien Symonds]

This is madness.  You shouldn't have kept the original raw files when you converted to DNG, nor should you keep them now.

[Elliot]

Really. I thought I once read that there might be some data in the raw file that isn't in the DNG, and that I should keep the original raw Just In Case. I will happily delete the raw files for those that I converted to DNG. However, I do notice that the size of the DNG files are about twice that of the raw files. Not that I'm that pressed on disk space, I'm just saying.

Thanks again.

[Damien Symonds]

1 minute ago, Elliot said:

However, I do notice that the size of the DNG files are about twice that of the raw files.

Ah.  That shouldn't be.  DNG files should be slightly smaller than their equivalent raw files.

If yours are so big, it means that you checked the "Embed original raw file inside DNG file" checkbox when you did the conversions.  If that is the case, you might be able to extract them again, and they might have the ratings still attached.  I don't know know how, but a quick Google search will tell you.

[Elliot]

That's odd. I just reconverted them into a different directory and they are, indeed, smaller. I thought I just used the same tool, but maybe not.

Then I tried to use the Adobe DNG Converter tool to covert the DNG to DNG, and I got files the same size as the first DNG, which were larger.

Then I tried to use the extract function of the converter to extract the embedded raw from the DNG, and it said it couldn't find any.

So, I now have two sets of DNG files. One set that I converted two years ago and are twice as large as the original raw files, but with no evidence that they contain an embedded original, and one set that I just now converted that are slightly smaller than the original ray files. 

Is there something else, like full-sized jpg previews?

Is there a way to get a status? Thanks.

[Elliot]

Ok, I found a tool called exiftool that will copy metadata from one file to another, regardless of format. I'll copy the metadata from the bloated DNG files back to the original raw files and delete the dng files, except for the few that I did some raw processing on.